This is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 07/147,250 filed 01/19/88 now abandoned.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to therapeutic sleeping pillows and particularly to a therapeutic pillow for relaxing tendons and shoulder muscles during sleep when the sleeping person is laying on his or her side. The immediate invention is primarily directed towards position retaining and the prevention of tilt-up at either end and from having an edge raise when the weight of the sleeper's head is shifted on the pillow.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many attempts have been made to produce a therapeutic sleeping pillow which would comfortably elevate a persons head while sleeping in a sidewise position. In these attempts, molded pillows contoured to the head and neck line of the sleeper and pillows grooved to accept hair curlers have been tried. Pillows with dual fillers having a soft top and a harder bottom section appear to be the most effective. This has also been tried without actually accomplishing a satisfactory therapeutic pillow useful for sidewise sleeping. A major problem which is solved by the immediate invention is the tendency for a wide edged pillow to tilt towards from the weight of the sleeper's head. A second problem can also occur when the ends of a pillow both tend to tilt or curl up around the head of a sleeper. Tilting problems are caused in wide edged, foam filled pillows when a soft foam section is used unattached over a hard foam section in the pillow structure, especially when both are encased in a pillow case. When the soft upper section is pushed down by the sleeper's head, the soft section tends to flip up above the sleeper's head pulling the hard section with it. This same effect also tends to pull up both ends of the encased pillow. To provide sidewise sleeping with the head elevated to keep the spine aligned requires a wide edged pillow. My testing has shown the wide edged two-sectioned pillow, a soft foam block upper section unattached over a harder foam block lower section, provides the best therapeutic sleeping pillow, relaxing both tendons and shoulder muscles. The two sections, incased in a special covering and then a pillow case, must be left unattached so that one section, preferably the soft section, can be changed when changes in the thickness of the pillow are required for different sized sleepers. The problem is to provide a comfortable head rest and to prevent the wide edged pillow from tilting along the edges or actually popping out from under the sleepers head from pressure on a wide edge. This has to be accomplished without inserting bracing between sections of the pillow or providing the pillow with an exceptionally hard base or foam layer unless you're not overly concerned about the neck comfort of the sleeper.
The need for double padding in a pillow for head elevation is seen in several past art devices. The principal drawback to these illustrated pillows appears to be lack of consideration for the sleeper's comfort, difficult pillow height adjustment, and central placement of hard panels or a hard block member which all but eliminates the cushioning effect of the double padding. This hard core center structure is seen in a U.S. patent issued to Beier on July 12, 1988, U.S. Pat. No. 4,756,035. Although Beier approaches the double padding need in one section, the neck section, of his device, he provides a hard core center fitted inside the neck section all but eliminating the cushioning effect of the double padding. This might support a sleeper's neck with some comfort while the sleeper is on his back but would appear to be uncomfortable for the side sleeper. A fold-over pad is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,757,364, dated Sept. 11, 1973, granted to Downing. On Downing's pillow, the sleeper has a hollow for his head to rest in while on his back, and raised sides to elevate his head for side sleeping. Downing makes no provisions for pillow height adjustment or for preventing end tilting from the sleeper's head weight and the sleeper must lie in a particular position to take advantage of the head hollow for back sleeping and the raised sides for side sleeping. U.S. Pat. No. 2,700,779, issued to Tolkowsky, dated Feb. 1, 1955, shows similar contouring to the Downing pillow. Although Tolkowsky does call his device a "Therapeutic Pillow," the specifically shaped surface of the pillow and the hardness required to maintain the shape imposes considerable limitations on user comfort. Other U.S. patents noted with raised head provisions included U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,256,096 and 3,319,272.
My invention approaches and solves problems associated with pillow hardness, pillow tilting, pillow height, and the need for a comfortable head support for the person who sleeps on his or her side.